


The Art of Matchmaking

by damerey_knows



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Damerey Secret Santa Exchange, F/M, Fluff, Hitch AU, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Jet skiing, Modern AU, Movie AU, Secret Santa 2020, Sharing a Bed, Stupidity, Swimming, lovers to enemies to lovers AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28350171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damerey_knows/pseuds/damerey_knows
Summary: When Coruscant's most secretive consultant's services are required several things are bound to happen.
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19
Collections: Damerey Discord Shenanigans





	The Art of Matchmaking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bright_Boisterous_Bananas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Boisterous_Bananas/gifts).



> Happy Secret Santa TrippleB!!!! Hope you like it, I think I got like half of your prompts included, even if it's not really a "christmasy" story.... but you asked for a movie au and i think i did alright with this Hitch AU 😂😂
> 
> SOoooooooooooo I tried, I really tried to make this fit into one chapter, but time got away from me and i really wanted to get it posted today, so now it's gonna be three chapters. hopefully the rest will be up later this week ❤❤
> 
> anyways Let me know what you think and Happy Holidays everyone!

Poe smiled as he walked down the streets of downtown Coruscant to the apartment of his most recent client. His job was an odd one, a bit outdated if you asked some, a bit controversial if you asked others. His job was to help men find their perfect match. Or well every man other than himself. Poe had had one too many bad relationships in the past for him to really truly feel that he was going to find “the one” for him. He was having enough fun without being tied to someone, no matter what his father thought.

Waiting as a taxi passed, Poe crossed the street and jogged up the steps to the Coruscant Natural History Museum. There were several dozen people sitting on the wide stone steps, enjoying their lunch breaks. Poe already knew a bit about his client today. Finn Trooper, twenty seven years old, a senior accountant at a large engineering firm downtown. Also, a hopeless romantic with no ability to talk to women.

Poe caught sight of Finn from a few yards away. Just watching him in his natural habitat for a few minutes. In that time, Finn accidentally shook up his soda, and dropped his hotdog onto his shoes.

Poe shook his head. It was good he called Poe.

“Finn Trooper?” he asked as he walked up to where Finn was and taking a seat, carefully avoiding the spilled soda. “Hope she’s single, ‘cause I don’t do breakups.”

“Oh my god, hi,” Finn said, a little flustered as he turned to Poe. “And yes, she is.”

“Good, good. So, tell me about this girl you like," Poe said with a wide grin as he noticed Finn's immediately started shifting around in embarrassment.

"Well," Finn started. "Where should I start?"

"Tell me how you met," Poe said, going with the question that usually got his clients to open up the fastest.

"At work," Finn said, his smile turning wistful as his eyes unfocused, thinking about that moment. "She was walking through my department talking to my boss and it just… it felt like all I could see was her, and then there were a lot of moments where I see her in the break room, and she was getting her coffee and…"

Poe’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Finn suspiciously. "Have you ever actually spoken to her?" he asked.

"I… uh…” Poe could see the discomfort on Finn's face.

"I need an honest answer here, buddy."

Finn scratched at the back of his neck sheepishly. "Every time I try, nothing comes out and I just run before she sees me."

 _There it is._ It was always a little too easy to pick out the reason his clients called him. "Okay," Poe said with a calm smile, leaning back in his seat. "We can figure that out. That's usually where a lot of people start when they're really interested in someone."

“Really?" The look of hope on Finn's face was blinding

“Yep," Poe nodded. “How long you been in love with her?”

“Three years?” Finn said.

Poe nodded. "What's her name?"

"Rose Tico," Finn said already wincing at Poe's reaction.

Poe’s jaw dropped. "Rose Tico? Of _Tico Industries_?" He said it twice to confirm his ears weren’t playing a trick on him. "The C.E.O. of your company?"

"It's hopeless isn’t it?" Finn asked his head dropping into his hands as Poe stared blankly at him.

Poe took a deep breath, then another. This would take a miracle. But miracles were his specialty after all. He took another deep breath assessing his options.

"Okay I need you to walk me through it." He started trying to figure out his strategy. It would take a lot to get someone in Rose Tico's status to notice someone outside of her normal sphere of acquaintances.

An hour later Poe left Finn on the steps of the museum, feeling a little bewildered at the responses he'd gotten and the task he'd been set. It was impossible, but Poe had a habit of taking on impossible challenges.

He shook his head as he hailed a cab.

* * *

Rey Kenobi shook her head as she shot down yet another guy who offered to buy her a drink. It was a Friday afternoon and she was exhausted after a week of running around Coruscant looking for another lead on her story.

Rey hadn't thought that being a gossip columnist would be her calling in life but here she was, invested in the lives of others and learning about all the different scandals that ran rampant through the lives of the rich and the famous.

"Honestly, hun," Jannah said, sipping her beer as Rey turned away from the bar. "I don’t know why you won’t just let someone take you home for once. It could be fun.”

Rey rolled her eyes playfully, "If I wanted to go home with them, I would.”

"You never know when Mr. right is just going to fall into your lap," Jannah said with a sly grin.

Rey rolled her eyes. "My prince charming is not going to show up and spend the entire conversation staring at my chest.”

Jannah laughed. "Okay fair. But you have to give someone a chance, how will you ever know if they're worth a chance if you don't even let them try?"

Rey shook her head. "You're worse than Leia. I don’t need a boyfriend to be happy, I’ve said that already."

"I’m not saying you do; I’m just saying you should have some fun in your twenties, you're a gorgeous woman and you're spending your vacations alone."

"Alone on a beach in the Bahamas," Rey said with a smile. It's not like she was avoiding men completely, she just didn't feel like the pool she was picking from was flush with anyone she would be interested in. She adamantly refused to think about her last relationship and took another sip of her drink.

Jannah stood from the bar. "Alright, well, you may be fine with being alone, but I'm not feeling it right now," she fluffed up her curly hair a little and straightened one of her necklaces before giving Rey a one armed hug. "Talk to you later?"

Rey laughed and nodded.

* * *

Poe leaned over the pool table as he lined up another shot. "Ugh!" he moaned when he scratched the cue ball.

Snap laughed at him. "C'mon dude, you just need a gentle touch."

Poe glared up at the self-satisfied smirk on Snap's face as he threw Poe's own words back at him.

Snap grabbed the cue ball and lined up the next shot, sinking four balls in quick succession. "See?"

Poe rolled his eyes at him. “Look," he said pointing the end of his cue stick at Snap's face. “Just because you found the love of your life, doesn't mean you get to use all of my own methods against me."

Snap laughed and pushed his cue stick away. "I'm just saying you need to lighten up and find someone are you seriously telling me you want to be doing this same single thing for the rest of your life?"

Poe leveled a look at him. He had grown up with stories about his parents and their fairytale romance, but years and experience had made him more jaded than he cared to admit, even to Snap.

“Look Snap. You're my best friend but I am not interested in a long term relationship, I've told you that before," Poe said, lining up his next shot just as he saw a pretty woman with her hair tied back in a bun move from the bar to a couch by the bar’s waterfall display. He watched as she rolled her neck and took a long sip of her martini. Pulling her feet up onto the seat under her and leaving the pumps she presumably wore to work on the ground in front of her.

Snap rapped his cue stick against Poe's elbow. "You gonna take your shot?"

Poe grinned back at him. "Not with you," he said with a wink as he set the cue stick against the side of the table and walked up to the bar.

Snap’s booming laughter followed him as he walked to the bar and struck up a conversation with the bartender.

The bartender was a old friend of Poe's, but he didn't know much about the woman. Her drink of the night seemed to be Martinis and she worked for some newspaper or magazine that the bartender didn’t know.

Poe studied her for a few minutes as he waited for the refreshed drinks to be made

"Two martinis!" the bartender said and Poe paid the man and walked with the drinks towards the woman before skidding to a halt at a nearby table when he saw another guy walk up to her to offer her another drink.

"Hi," the other man said to the woman, "I can’t help but think that you'd look even prettier in my apartment."

Poe had his back turned to the man so he couldn’t see the no doubt smug grin on the guys face, but he couldn't believe that anyone really thought they could get away with that.

Clearly the woman thought the same as she said in an amiable tone. “What's your name?"

"Kylo,” the man said.

Without missing a beat the woman said "And you let them?"

Poe snorted, she had a sense of humor that Poe couldn't help liking immensely.

"Why you gotta be like that?" the guy asked her. "Isn’t it hard enough being a single woman in the city, why are you throwing away a golden moment like this."

Poe had had enough. Giving the martini and a few instructions to a passing waitress he walked over to the pair quietly.

"Look Kyle," the woman said as calmly as she could. "I understand it takes a lot of courage to shoot your shot, but I'm not interested in you okay?"

"Your dress looks like it would come off really easily."

“Did I start speaking a different language? Can you understand me?” the woman asked with confusion and a touch of alarm.

"I just don’t understand why you would throw away—” Kylo said and Poe finished the line with a hand on his shoulder.

“A chance at happiness?” He threw a smile at the woman. “Hey honey, sorry traffic was bad. How was the meeting?”

The woman smiled at him, clearly catching onto his rouse. “There was a beginning, and then there was a PowerPoint, and then it ended.” She looked back at the man. “Bye Kyle.”

The man, clearly miffed at the slight, stood and left.

“You know,” Poe said as he sat down in the armchair next to her. “It is hard as hell to walk up to a woman as beautiful as you and make a conversation out of thin air that will interest her.”

The woman’s eyebrow raised as if she was curious as to where this conversation was going.

Poe gave her a crooked grin. “But is that really your fault?”

She gave a small laugh and shook her head at him. “We all have our crosses to bear.”

Poe nodded at her. “I mean you are doing your part.”

“I am?” she asked skeptically.

“Yep,” Poe said, sizing her up quickly trying not to make himself seem creepy. “You are not here for a night on the town.”

“And how would you know that?”

“You’re here by yourself, hair pulled back so it’s not in your face, wearing flats, minimum makeup— not that you’d need much— no jewelery, drinking a martini, and lost in thought. Which means that your week has been rough and there’s nothing less exciting at this moment than talking to some guy who just wants to get into your pants.”

She looked impressed.

“And if that wasn’t enough, there’s always the ‘Fuck Off’ that you have stamped on your forehead.”

That got a laugh out of her.

“Because who would believe that there’s a man out there that would sit down next to a woman he doesn’t know and be genuinely interested in what she has to say?”

“I wouldn’t even know what that would look like,” she said, the smile shrinking but not completely disappearing. “What would he say?”

Poe smiled triumphantly. “Well, he would say something along the lines of ‘My name is Poe Dameron and I’m a consultant,’ but she wouldn’t be interested in that, just looking forward to the moment he left.”

She nodded along with his words. “Thinking he was just like the last three guys to try talking to her.”

“Which she would know from experience dealing with guys like that every other time she goes out.” Poe leaned closer to her chair. “But then he’d ask for her name and what she did for a living, and she might blow him off or she might say…”

She smiled and shook her head again. “I’m Rey Kenobi, I run the gossip column at The Falcon.” Suddenly, Rey sat up, leaning towards him. “And then he’d ask all these deep questions about it because he was sincerely if atypically interested.”

“No, no no,” Poe said breaking that chain of thought. “He’d be interested.”

Rey raised her eyebrows at that.

“But he’d see that there was no way he could possibly make her believe that he was serious.”

She picked up her half-finished drink from before the other guy came over. “Well, he could be funny and different, and not use a cheesy line to start off with.”

Poe shook his head as she took a sip. “Wouldn’t help.”

“Doesn’t that just suck.”

Poe shrugged. “No I don’t think it would.”

“Really?”

“They would go on to the rest of their lives and it would just be a moment of interesting company.” With a final, charming smile, Poe stood. “Pleasure to have met you Rey Kenobi.” As he walked out of the bar he heard the waitress he’d spoken to earlier giving Rey the martini he had intended to bring her earlier.

* * *

“Armitage Hux,” Poe asked as he walked up to a lanky, ginger haired man sitting alone in the restaurant. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Oh, no worries,” Hux said, smiling cordially at him. “Can I get you something to drink mister…?”

“Oh, I’m fine, thank you,” Poe said quickly, getting right down to business. “So, tell me about this woman.”

Hux looked down at his glass of water, trailing a finger down the condensation on the outside of the glass. “Have you ever met someone and you knew right away that she was going to be important to you?” Hux said. “Not just because of her looks but you know that— that unquantifiable thing?”

Poe nodded along in understanding. He’d seen a lot of guys who were reduced to poetry over their ladies. “How’d you meet her?”

Hux got a little cagey. “Actually, I was in a shop buying pajamas for my mom—”

Poe had to interrupt there. He didn’t do breakups. “By that of course you mean, you were buying lingerie for another woman.”

Hux ducked his head. “Yes, well, you can’t help where you meet somebody. The lingerie was for a woman I’m no longer seeing. So anyway, the girl I met the one I was talking about is so sweet. Funny, British. Now she gives me her number, now she won’t return my phone calls. I don’t know what it is about her. I just can’t get her out of my mind. You know, food has lost it’s flavor, you know colors seem dull, things that used to matter, I don’t know they just no longer do.” Hux poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher on their table.

Poe was leaning into the conversation, trying to get a better read on this guy. He was saying all the things Poe was familiar with from his other clients.

“I just— I don’t think things are gonna snap back unless I…” Hux paused to smile back up at Poe. “Unless I bang her.”

“Come again?” Poe demanded. All prior empathy for the man’s predicament evaporating.

“You know bang her, clear my head,” Hux said with a shrug as he took a sip of water. “Get in, get off, get out.”

Poe swallowed down his revulsion at the man. “I think you misunderstood what it is that I do.”

“No, no, I was told you help guys get in there.”

Poe laughed. “No, you see here’s the thing. My clients actually _like_ women.”

Hux cocked his head as if this was a new concept to him.

“Hit it and quit it is not what I do.”

“Let me make one thing clear to you,” Hux said reaching into his suit jacket and pulling out a checkbook. “I need professional help.”

“Clearly,” Poe said. “And I’m glad you can admit it because generally people like you are unwilling to do so.” Poe stood up, unwilling to be there a moment longer, even as he saw the numbers Hux was writing on the check.

Hux’s hand snapped forward and grabbed Poe’s arm. “You see what I’m doing?” he asked standing up to tower over Poe.

Poe knew he wasn’t the tallest man but he could already tell that Hux was more bluster than anything else.

“This is what I’m about,” Hux continued. “Power suit, power tie, power steering. People can wince, cry, or scream but eventually they do what I want.”

“Is that like a metaphor or something?” Poe asked.

“Yes,” Hux said, staring him down.

“Alright well, I’m more of a literal kind of guy so when I do this.” Poe flipped Hux’s wrist and locked his elbow, throwing the taller man face first into the table. “This is me saying that ‘I will literally break your shit off if you ever touch me again. M’kay, Pumpkin?”

Hux gave a little whine of ascent and Poe let go of his arm, allowing Hux to drop back into his seat as he strode out of the restaurant.

* * *

Rey laughed at Jannah as she started up her computer Monday morning. “I am not! I don’t even know his number how on earth would I ever call him again?”

“I’m just saying,” Jannah teased. “He seems like an interesting guy, and— from what I saw of him— he’s got a really nice backside. You could do worse.”

Rey rolled her eyes at her friend. “It was one drink. And maybe half a conversation after he made that creeper go away. Nothing is gonna come from it.”

Just then a bike messenger came into the office and called out, “Rey Kenobi?”

“Over here,” she said with a wave.

The messenger set what looked like a pastry box down on her desk and offered her a clipboard. “Sign here please.”

Confused Rey signed her name and opened the box. Nestled in some crinkled paper was a walkie talkie. “Umm?” Rey muttered, pressing the button on the side.

Rey jumped when the walkie talkie blared to life. “I hate making a connection with a person and then not being able to contact them after the fact,” Poe’s voice came through the speaker a little static-y.

Jannah looked over from her desk.

Rey, over the shock of the moment, lifted the walkie talkie to her mouth. “Because sending a messenger guy is so much more effective?”

She could hear Poe’s laughter on his voice. “It got your attention didn’t it?”

“Is that the guy?” Jannah asked leaning in as Kaydel and Beaumont poked their heads curiously over her cubicle wall.

Rey nodded and shooed Jannah away as Poe continued to speak.

“You know I couldn’t help feeling like there’s more to the story of Rey Kenobi than I learned the other night.”

“What, you didn’t figure out my entire existence in one five minute conversation?” Rey asked, smirking over the walkie talkie at Jannah, who rolled her eyes.

“I’m good Ms. Kenobi, but not that good,” came Poe’s crackly voice. “How about dinner Friday night, if you wouldn’t mind taking off that sign on your forehead for a few hours?”

Rey rolled her eyes. “Can’t. Got a couple of parties I need to check out.”

“Guess the gossip in Coruscant is a bit too busy this time of year, huh?”

“Yup,” Rey said, smiling as she popped the ‘P’.

“Saturday?”

“Dinner with my parents,” Rey said. He really was persistent.

“Alright, final offer.” Rey could hear the smile in his voice. “Brunch Sunday, and you can barely call that a date, you do that with cousins you haven’t seen in ten years.”

Rey glanced up and met Kaydel’s eyes.

Kaydel and Jannah were both giving her encouraging nods.

“I guess I could do Sunday,” she said, hesitantly.

“Great!" Poe said. "I’ll see you at the marina, 7am on Sunday."

“Whoa, whoa 7?!” Rey demanded but the line was dead.

“Please sign here," said the messenger, who Rey had entirely forgotten was still standing there.

“What?”

“You said Sunday right?”

“Yeah?” Rey asked as she signed the clipboard and the messenger pulled another package out of this bag. “What if I'd said Friday?" she asked shaking the package, which was gift wrapped with a slightly crunched bow.

The messenger just smiled and left the office.

“Well open it up!” Jannah said, crowding around her desk.

Rey ripped into the paper and pulled open the box to find....

“Well I guess you aren't going to church," Kaydel said with a laugh as Rey pulled out a wet suit.

* * *

Finn walked into the board meeting with Rose after spending almost an hour in the bathroom psyching himself up. He and Poe had a strategy, a game plan, all he had to do was stick to it.

It was just a board meeting. He’d been to dozens of them before, he could do this.

As Hux went on and on talking to Rose about their quarterly earnings, Finn tried to pay attention, looking for an opportunity to jump in and draw attention to himself.

“I understand what you’re saying, Hux,” Rose interrupted Hux’s clearly demeaning tone. “But the quarter reports are what they are. We need to take charge of what we have and find new ideas to increase revenues. We can’t just fall back on practices that clearly aren’t working.”

Hux’s smile was more sneer than anything else. “With all due respect, Rose, there is no way we c—”

“With all due respect, Hux,” Finn cut in. “You only have a job because this brilliant woman was able to build this company up from nothing. You would do well to listen to her advice and not walk all over what she has to say because you cannot handle the fact that a woman is your boss.”

A stunned silence blanketed the room. Hux’s jaw worked for a moment before he spoke. “Mr. Trooper I don’t see what her gen-”

“You think I don’t hear what you say in the break room or in the halls, and the condescending tone you have here right now only reinforces my opinion of you.” Finn’s temper was rising, but he couldn’t help it. Turning to Rose he said. “Ms. Tico, you don’t need some idiot like this to tell you how to run your company. And to be frank, I don’t care for working under someone who acts like a condescending jackass.”

Rose was just staring at him, a contemplative look on her face.

“I don’t think—” Hux started but Finn cut him off again.

“No! You know what!” Finn shouted turning back to Hux. “I quit, I’m done with you, Hux.”

Finn stood up quickly, as if he was a puppet who had all his strings yanked, and strode from the room.

He walked right into his office, and collapsed onto his desk, barely hearing Poe— who had been waiting for him— trying to calm him down.

“Just breathe, just breath,” Poe was repeating his hand on Finn’s back. “Tell me what happened.”

“I—” Finn gasped trying to staunch his panic. “I yelled at my boss.”

Poe’s eyebrows rose, but Finn pressed on.

“I yelled at _her_ , I told her to stop taking advice from a misogynistic prick like him! I quit my job!”

“YOU WHAT!” Poe’s shocked voice cut through everything.

“I gotta go back and fix this,” Finn gasped, oxygen finally making it to his brain. He stood up from the desk and ran towards the door.

“No!” Poe grabbed Finn around the shoulders, dragging him back from the door. “We can fix this!”

“Let me go!” Finn shouted, trying to throw Poe off as he kept fighting to get to the door.

Poe struggled, getting Finn into a full nelson hold. “We can fix this, calm down and think about this,” he gasped.

Just then they both heard a knock at the door.

“Answer it,” Poe hissed in Finn’s ear.

Finn gasped against Poe’s arm.

“Answer it,” Poe said more insistently.

Finn finally managed to get his arm free and tap on Poe’s hand.

Poe quickly released Finn, who gasped in quick lungfuls of air before standing up, straightening his tie and answering the door as Poe hid behind it.

“Hi,” Rose Tico said when Finn opened the door halfway, trying to hide the mess inside.

“Hello,” Finn said, half an eye on Poe, who was mouthing words at him.

“I just wanted to say, thank you,” Rose said, a contemplative look on her face. “People don’t usually stick up for me like that, and I really appreciate it.”

“It— uh—” Finn stuttered. “It was nothing.” Poe nodded silently at him.

“No,” Rose shook her head. “It really wasn’t nothing.”

Finn could feel his ears heating up as he glanced away, but quickly looked back up when Poe motioned for him to stand straight.

“Listen, I just wanted to say I don’t accept your resignation,” Rose continued.

“What?” Finn’s shock was evident on his face.

Rose smiled wider at him. “I don’t accept yours, but I do want to move you onto a different team. You were right about Hux and this isn’t the first time someone’s been, shall we say, frustrated with him because of his behavior.” Rose shook her head. “So I was thinking maybe we could get together and talk sometime about where you are and what kind of projects you think might help.”

“Yes, that would be great!” Finn said quickly.

“Great!” Rose repeated, looking down at her purse. “Let me just give you my number, if I can find a pen,” she muttered as she searched.

Finn felt Poe’s hand reach into the breast pocket of his jacket and leave a pen, before quickly retracting.

Finn pulled it out and offered it to her.

“Well,” Rose said, handing him back the pen and slip of paper with her number. “I look forward to talking with you later.”

Finn nodded.

“Bye,” Rose said as Finn stood there frozen. She’d given him her personal number!

Slowly, careful not to startle either of them, Poe edged the door closed.

Finn walked back to his desk and promptly collapsed in his seat.

“Well, that went better than I’d expected,” Poe said with a laugh before seeing the green look on Finn’s face and running over to him with a paper bag. 

* * *

Sunday morning Rey walked up to where Poe was on the dock, a half drunk coffee in one hand and the wet suit in the other. She wasn't going to wear that on the train, it was too early for that nonsense.

“Do you really expect me to wear this?” she asked as she walked up to him.

Poe smiled as he stood up. Rey could see he was wearing his own wet suit, the top half unzipped and hanging around his waist, while the tight fabric of the tank top he was wearing clung to his chest very nicely. “Well, it might get a bit cold out there if you don’t,” he said gesturing to the two jet skis he'd clearly rented in front of him.

“Seriously?”

“Yep,” Pope said, popping his ‘P’ with a smile.

Rey’s head dropped back and then she raised it to look at him, downing the last of her coffee.

“Oh, wait,” Poe said, dropping to grab something from the backpack he’d been fiddling with before. “You just need…” He trailed off as he pulled a pair of sunglasses out and held them out to her, waiting for her to hold still for a moment before sliding them onto her face.

“How do I look?” Rey asked, laughing as she shook her head.

“Gorgeous,” Poe said, a serious look in his eyes as if it was one of the most important things he would say.

Rey looked away, for a moment, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. “Alright fine! I give, where can I get changed?”

Poe grinned and pointed her in the direction of the bathrooms.

Fifteen minutes later, they were both situated on the skis, pulling away from the docks.

“Okay, so we’re gonna head out towards the pier hang a left, then it’s pretty much a straight shot from there,” Poe shouted over the noise of the engines.

“Where are you taking me?” Rey called back.

“You’ll see,” Poe said, cryptic as ever. “So what you do with these babies is you gotta—”

Rey cut him off. She already knew how to use a jet ski. “What I do with them is kick your ass, Dameron!” Rey called before taking off towards the pier.

She could hear Poe’s laughter behind her as he followed behind her.

Rey whooped as she sped past a dining boat and raced Poe to the point of the pier. She was making good time, probably a few dozen yards ahead of Poe when she heard a loud whistling from behind her. Looking back, Rey saw that Poe had stopped in the middle of the bay, his hands over his head as he waved to her. Confused she turned her jet ski around and went back to where he was.

“What happened?” she asked as she came up to him, riding in circles around where he was sitting.

“I don’t know,” Poe called back. “The engine just died on me.”

“A likely story,” Rey teased, rolling her eyes behind the sunglasses she still wore.

“I’m serious,” Poe insisted. “I think it sucked up a diaper or something.”

“Ewww!”

“C’mon, let me hop on yours,” he said, reaching an arm out to her.

“What if you break mine, too?” Rey teased.

Poe rolled his eyes so hard Rey could feel it. “I told you, it just died!”

She reached out to grab his hand and allowed him to pull them together. Rey shook her head and slid forwards in the seat. “Fine, get on.”

“Uh-uh, slide back,” Poe insisted. “You don’t know where we’re going.”

“So tell me,” Rey responded, mimicking his tone.

Poe shook his head.

Rey groaned. “Fine.” She shook her head again and slid back on the seat. “How exactly do you walk with that male ego?”

“Ha ha ha,” Poe deadpanned as he swung his leg over.

Rey didn’t see it coming. Suddenly she felt a blinding pain on her temple, and she fell to the side and was in the cold water. The life vest she was wearing brought her back up to the surface gasping and treading water.

“REY!” Poe’s voice came from above, panicked and Rey heard another splash and felt arms around her middle. “I got you!” 

Poe pulled them both back onto the working jet ski quickly. “You okay?” he asked as he turned her head to examine her temple. 

Rey nodded, wincing. 

“Okay, hang onto me, it’s not that far and we’ll get you dried off and some ice for your head.” 

Rey nodded as she wound her hands around Poe’s middle, resting her cheek between his shoulder blades. 


End file.
